


Christmas At Grandpa's

by Cheese-san (CreepyEnigma)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Holidays, awkward dinner, christmas break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 02:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6177403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreepyEnigma/pseuds/Cheese-san
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ian Nashton is forced to change his Christmas holiday plans when he and his family decided to spend the week with extended family in Chicago, how will he cope?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas At Grandpa's

School’s out for 2006 and it was Christmas break. However, Ian’s plans for the holidays took a sharp turn when their parents decided to go to have a Christmas gathering at George’s father’s house in Chicago. They planned to stay the week there. Ian stayed silent throughout the whole trip, only speaking when he had to. Jansen, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind the trip, in fact, he was pretty excited.

The Nashtons were picked up by George’s sister-in-law Margaret. Of course, like any typical aunts, she smothered both Jansen and Ian with kisses. When the adults weren’t looking, Ian and Jansen helped each other wipe away the lipstick stains.

“I can make it out. It’s only one week.” Ian muttered to himself.

All five of them managed to fit into Margaret’s car along with the luggage. Margaret and George sat in the front, Madeleine and Jansen sat in the middle with her suitcase while Ian sat in the back with the rest of the luggage. Ian was almost buried in the luggage but he didn’t really care. He took out his MP3 player and listened to music on the road.

It took about an hour to get from the airport to Grandpa Barry’s house. Ian was half asleep by then, but he was woken up when Margaret slammed on the brakes and George’s briefcase fell on top of him.

Ian let out a slight hiss and rubbed his head. He wondered what his father kept in that briefcase, but he said nothing more.

Slowly, the luggage is taken out of the car and Ian was the last one to exit (obviously). Ian puts his earphones and MP3 player in his pocket, he could already hear the screaming of his younger cousins from the front yard. Jansen pretended to be oblivious, though, he managed to walk and play on his DS at the same time.

George knocked on the door, after a few minutes, Grandpa Barry opens the door, he greeted George with a bone crushing hug that made everyone wince. Luckily for the others, George was the only one that was hugged.

However, luck didn’t stay around for long. Not for Ian anyway, as soon as he stepped inside the house, his twin cousins—Anna and Bella—clung to his leg, both of them were seven years old. Ian was unable to move, but he forced out a smile and tried to get them off his legs.

“Will you play with us?” Anna asked, looking up at Ian with the best puppy eyes she could muster.

“Pweeeease?” Bella added, doing the same thing as Anna.

“Uh… Well, but I got homework, though. You know… I’d love to, but uh… Maybe later.” Ian lied, he honestly wanted to just take a rest from it all. The look on the twin’s faces made Ian’s heart sink, he hated it when they do that.

The twins let go though and went back to their tea party. Ian breathed a sigh of relief, not that he hated the twins, he was just too tired.

Ian actually got a decent room to sleep in, but he had to share it with Jansen. Not that it was a problem. Ian puts his bag down on the bed that’s closer to the window and lies down immediately. Since he was absolutely exhausted, he took off his glasses and puts them on the bedside table. Ian fell asleep in a matter of minutes.

Two hours later, Ian was woken up when he heard a knock on the bedroom door. Ian rubbed his eyes, confused as to why he had black smudges on his hands, then he remembered that he still had eyeliner on. Ian sighed, there was nothing he could do now, he decided to take it off and change his clothes before going down to meet his other relatives, even if he didn’t want to.

When Ian opened the bedroom door, his heart nearly jumped out of his ribcage as he was greeted by what he thought was the girl from The Grudge. Ian let out a scream as he stumbled back, he fumbled for his glasses and immediately puts them on. The girl in front of his bedroom was actually his cousin, Danielle, who was just a month younger than him. Ian could feel his cheeks heating up, he was embarrassed by how he reacted.

“Nice to see you too, Ian. Dinner’s about to start. I heard something about the meatloaf being ready.” Danielle said as she held out her hand.

Ian let out a chuckle and took her hand, he was pretty light so Danielle had no problems in pulling him up.

“Who made them? Crap… I have to redo the eyeliner. It looks horrible.” Ian muttered as he made his way to the bathroom after he picked up his eyeliner, Danielle followed behind him.

Danielle was Margaret’s daughter and was Ian’s favorite cousin as she was quite similar to him when it comes to taste in music and fashion. The only difference is that she wasn’t into science. Despite this, Ian and Danielle get along very well; it was almost as if they were twins.

“Do you need my makeup remover wipes?” Danielle asked, “I can get it from my room if you’d like.”

“Yeah, that’d be so great, thanks, Dani,” Ian said, he removed his glasses again and puts them down near the sink. After a few minutes, Danielle came back with her makeup remover wipes. Ian smiled in gratitude and used the wipes to remove what was left of his eyeliner, he then tossed the used wipes into the bin. Ian started to put on his eyeliner, Danielle watches with an amused smile on her face.

“Ian Nashton, breaking gender roles since 1989,” Danielle said.

“Well actually, Egyptian men wore eyeliner too,” Ian said as he puts his glasses back on, he puts the eyeliner pencil in his shirt pocket, he didn’t need to worry about it ruining his shirt as the eyeliner had a lid.

“You’re not Egyptian though.”

“But I’m a man. Emo man for that matter.”

“Not until February next year.”

“Fair enough. Anyway, let’s check out the dinner table.” Ian said. He ran his hand through his hair just to make it more presentable. Once that was done, Ian and Danielle goes downstairs. Of course, a few of their relatives gave them a questioning look as both had ‘emo’ eyeliner on.

“No, we didn’t punch each other,” Danielle spoke before anyone can ask questions.

“Why do you guys look like pandas?” Anna asked innocently.

“I want to look like a panda too!” Bella added.

Ian snorted at the panda comment, now that he thinks about it, it does make him look like a panda sometimes.

“I can do that for you!” Danielle exclaimed.

Seeing that the table was now full of food, Ian took a seat near the end of the table and Danielle sat beside him. All the seats around the table were occupied, except for one. The dinner won’t start until that person comes.

Everyone had to wait an extra 30 minutes, finally, the door opens. Everyone’s heads turned towards the door, ready to glare at the latecomer. It was Danielle’s 18-year-old sister, Ashley. However, she had a man that looked like he was in his mid-twenties with her.

Ian studied the man from head to toe, trying to look as subtle as possible, he leaned closer to Danielle and whispered, “who’s that?”

“Her drummer slash boyfriend. I think.” Danielle muttered, “his name is Jordan.”

Thanks to the unexpected guest, the table arrangements are all changed. For the first fifteen minutes, everyone was eating in silence. Suddenly, George’s older brother, Richie, stood up as if he was about to make an announcement. Richie walked over to Ian’s end of the table. Ian raised an eyebrow and waited.

“I want to show you my summer vacation photos,” Richie said with a huge grin on his face.

Danielle groaned while Margaret and George pretended not to hear it, Ashley was too busy with Jordan to care.

“Dad, not that!” Danielle exclaimed, “spare the poor kid!”

“Relax, Dani! How bad could it be?” Ian asked as he patted Danielle on the shoulder reassuringly, he had no idea what’s coming.

“You’ll see, son. You’ll see.” George said from the other end of the table.

Richie took out a photo album wallet from his pocket and showed its contents to Ian. At first, everything was normal, but things get weird really quick and Ian started to cringe. Long story short, the rest of the photos in that album was basically of Richie in his swimwear.

“I DID NOT NEED TO SEE THAT!” Ian screeched.

Jansen looked up from his book and squinted at his older brother from across the table, then he continued to read his book.

Ian glared as Richie walked back to his seat to pick up his plate, putting it in the dishwasher. Ian pushed his half empty plate away from him and muttered, “thanks for making me lose my appetite.”

“I’ll finish that!” Jansen exclaimed he folded the corner of the page that he was on and puts the book on his lap, then he reached out for the plate, it turned out he was still hungry.

“You know… I could actually be in Toronto right now with my pals… But you know, I had to participate in this.” Ian complained in a tone only he and Danielle could hear.

“I know. I wished I could stay in Manhattan too.” Danielle said, “at least we got each other, fellow emo.”

Ian let out a chuckle and nodded. He took out his trusty MP3 player and earphones, but before he could play any music, Grandpa Barry slapped his back so hard that he nearly dropped his MP3 player. Grandpa Barry meant well, though.

“You’re graduating next year! Got any plans?” Grandpa Barry asked.

“Uh… Yeah. Harvard’s my goal, actually.” Ian said enthusiastically.

“I’m planning to go to Yale.” Danielle immediately said afterward, she didn’t want a slap on the back.

“Good on you, kiddos!” Grandpa Barry exclaimed as he ruffled both Ian and Danielle’s hair, causing the two teens to roll their eyes.

* * *

By ten PM, everyone had finished their dinner, all the dishes were now in the dishwasher. The younger kids are getting ready to sleep, Ian actually wanted to see what was on TV but Aunt Margaret and Madeleine were watching some soap opera—More accurately, Margaret dragged Madeleine to watch soap operas with her.

At first, Danielle thought she would be interested in what her mother and aunt were watching, but after five minutes of watching, she found it to be unbearable and retreated to her room. Ian stared at the TV screen for a while before walking away, heading towards the bathroom again.

“Dani? Can I use your makeup remover wipes again?” Ian called out, not feeling any shame if anyone was to hear him.

“Sure! It’s still in the bathroom, right?” Danielle answered from her room.

“Yeah, thanks, Dani!” Ian wasted no more time in removing his eyeliner, he tossed the used wipes into the bin and walked into his room, he opened his bag and took out his toothbrush and walked back to the bathroom. Ian picked up the nearby toothpaste, squeezing its content on the toothbrush.

Ian spent the next three minutes brushing his teeth. Once he was done, he washed the toothbrush and puts it in the toothbrush holder. Ian didn’t have to worry about other people using his toothbrush because his toothbrush was the only one with a black handle and black bristles.

Ian turned off the bathroom lights and walked back into his room. Jansen was already inside and half asleep. The sight made Ian smile slightly, he took out the eyeliner from his shirt pocket and places it on the bedside table. Ian didn’t bother changing, he only changed into shorts—which is how he usually sleeps. Ian took off his glasses and placed it on the bedside table, next to his eyeliner, he then lies down on his bed, pulling the covers over himself. Ian falls asleep in a matter of minutes; it has been a rather long day for him.


End file.
